STEPHEN AND THE VENUS OF PRAXITELES: THE BACKSIDE OF AESTHETICS

Abstract

In this paper, I elaborate on Lynch’s remark on the Venus of Praxiteles in the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Looking back to the context which produced and worshipped it, the sculpture appears as a revolution in classical aesthetics. For all his apparent vulgarity, Lynch shows a better understanding of the sculptor’s intentions as well as a closer affinity to the classical tradition around the statue, than Stephen with all his Hegelian theorizing about art. In Ulysses, Bloom is another fervent worshipper of the Venus’s backside, which is in keeping with his roundabout ways, and with Joyce’s new treatment of the classics. Overall, I believe that the development of Joyce’s modernist aesthetics in his later works was better heralded by Lynch’s instinctive admiration than by Stephen’s aloof speculations.